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Digital marketing refers to different marketing methods that allow organizations and companies to see how a campaign is performing in real-time, such as what is being viewed, how often, how long, as well as other statistics such as sales conversions. The infographic below shows an example of what digital marketing nowadays is:

In recent years there has been much speculation about whether social signals from Twitter and Facebook are factor into Google search algorithm or not. Some SEO experts look at social in first place for traffic, awareness or other indirect benefits. Nevertheless there are some professionals that focus on social media for the rankings potential.

Google’s stance on social media influence

In May 2010, Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team, explained that the algorithm does not use social signals as a factor in google search results.Then, only 6 months later, i Cutts revealed that their algorithm does use social signals.

In his latest webmaster help video from January 2014, Cutts stated:

Facebook and Twitter pages are treated like any other pages in our web index so if something occurs on Twitter or occurs on Facebook and we’re able to crawl it, then we can return that in our search results. But as far as doing special specific work to sort of say “you have this many followers on Twitter or this many likes on Facebook”, to the best of my knowledge we don’t currently have any signals like that in our web search ranking algorithms.

Should we then stop using Facebook or Twitter with SEO purpose? Of course not. Cutts pointed out that there is a lot of value in both social networks.

So I’m not saying not to use Twitter or Facebook, I love to tweet, there’s a ton of people who get a ton of value from both Facebook and Twitter… But don’t necessarily assume that just because there is a signal on Facebook or Twitter that Google is able to access that. A lot of pages might be blocked or there might be nofollow on links or something along those lines.

Social is a search engine too

Visitors who find the company on it’s social platforms like Facebook or Twitter are searching, accessing, and interacting with the company in a real way. So that’s why social signals are still important to SEO. All big social platforms (Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Google +) have their own search algorithm. And if the size of your social empire is irrelevant then is at least your social presence a very relevant when it comes to search. Cutts’ video on the role of social media in SEO also suggests that future search results may provide tighter integration with social results.

So, as we move forward in the new SEO era of social, the conclusion is to stay active on the social networks. Remain plugged into this resources and of course curate them, improve them and enhance them.

As I already wrote in Top Internet Marketing Tools of 2014: Part 1 I have decided to write an article about the top internet marketing tools of 2014 in terms of improving the online presence. In Part 1 I focused on Reading and Writing Tools, as well Facebook Analysis Tools.

In this second part I will categorize the most helpful Twitter, LinkedIn, Research and Website Analysis Tools.

Twitter Tools

The Tools below could help you maximize your Twitter presence.

9. Save Publishing

With Save Publishing you can Instantly find passages under 140 characters. It’s a handy bookmarklet that highlights tweetable passages on your screen.

10. Tweriod

This Tool is my favorite! Tweriod analyzes your twitter account to show you the best times to tweet for more exposure and replies. Plus: once you get your peak times, you can use Buffer account with them.

11. Must Be Present

The Must Be Present Tool calculates how often and how quickly you respond to comments and questions on Twitter.

LinkedIn Tools

These Tools help you maximize your LinkedIn presence and connections.

12. SimplyMeasured LinkedIn Analysis Tool

If you want to get info about the action on your LinkedIn Company Page, SimplyMeasured Tool could help you to get a look at your most active posters, top days and more.

13. LinkedIn Maps

The LinkedIn Maps help you to get a view on how your connections on LinkedIn relate to one another and overlap.

Research Tools

14. Google Trends

With Google Trends you can see what the world is searching for and how interest in concepts has changed over time. For example I searched for “online marketing” and was able to see how the search of these term has developed for the past 9 years.

15. Google Scholar

With the Google Scholar you can limit your search to articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. For even more amazing search on your topics of interest, you can pair it with Google Alert.

Website Analysis Tools

The Website Analysis Tools could give you an overall look at many different facets of your site or online marketing strategy.

16. Marketing Grader

The Marketing Grader Tool offers you an overall look at the health of your marketing efforts in multiple categories.

17. SharedCount

This Tool is often used to see how your content has spread across the web. For sites that don’t display social media share button numbers, just paste the web address into the SharedCount Tool or use the URL-dashboard to enter lots of different web addressed.

18. QuickSprout

The QuickSprout Tool is a website audit, social media analysis and competitor report, all in one.

I recently twitted an interesting article about posting Tweets, Facebook Post and Emails at he best time. Then I read even more about that topic and decided to write my thoughts about statics and my experience.

1. What is the best time to post your updates on Facebook?

There is no such thing like best time of day to pst on Facebook, but stats ranging from 1pm to get the most shares, to 3pm to get more clicks, to the broader suggestion of anytime between 9am and 7pm. So, its seems like the early afternoon is a solid time to post, and anytime after dinner and before work being.

On the other site the infographic from KISSmetrics and Dan Zarrella found that engagement is 32% higher on weekends. So the end of the week is definitely a good time for posting updates:

Another study of Buddy Media found that engagement rates are 18% higher on Thursdays and Fridays and the explanation about it is: “the less people want to be at work, the more they are on Facebook!”:

2. When is the best time to tweet?

According to Dan Zarella’s research twitter engagement for brands is 17% higher on weekends.

Another study (Argyle Social) showed that weekdays provide 14% more engagement than weekends:

When we look at the time of day, retweets have been shown to be highest around 5pm:

The best times for click-throughs seem to be around noon and 6pm:

But most important is to have online performance on twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest… it’s always good to analyze the best time to post, so the brand could reach more audience, but for international brands, that are all over the world, there is always a good time to post!

Predictions are a mug’s game. If they come true, you likely didn’t push your thinking hard enough. If they don’t come true, you risk looking like an idiot. Nonetheless, many speakers at the annual TED conference have taken the plunge and proffered thoughts of what the future might look like. The video above takes a quick spin through just some of them, with thoughts from tech pioneers including Nicholas Negroponte, Rodney Brooks, Jeff Han and Pattie Maes.

Below, we asked many of the attendees and speakers at this year’s just-wrapped TED to riff off the conference’s theme (“The Next Chapter”) and tell us what they think might radically change society, life, technology and so on in the *next* 30 years. From funny and wry to deeply insightful, the answers will surprise you.

“One of the things about learning how to read — we have been doing a lot of consuming of…

Pinterest has captured the imagination of Internet users to become a top 10 social network in a matter of months. Not only is the speed of its rise fascinating, but the audience make up and its ability to drive traffic to participating sites have made it an important new opportunity — particularly for lifestyle brands. But how does it works? What are the best practices for marketing your business on Pinterest?

1. Set up your brand page and account. You’ll need an invite to Pinterest to join; but your social media or marketing department team members likely have an account from which they can invite you to set up your brand account.

2. Brand your account. Choose a user name that aligns with your brand. Upload your logo as your profile picture and fill out your profile so that users know it’s the brand account.

3. Create your initial pinboards. Think of the different types of collections that are relevant to your business and set up initial pinboards. Look at the featured accounts above for ideas on how to set up your first set of boards. You can start with just a few boards and expand as your engagement on Pinterest grows.

4. Seed your initial pinboards. Seed your initial boards with images from your websites and brands. These products will help establish what your brand presence is all about when users first visit your boards. Use images and products that are diverse.

5. Be consistent. Try to repin and add new content to your boards daily. The Pinterest stream moves quickly, so focused bursts will only been seen by a fraction of the people using the service.

6. Cross-promote your accounts. Jump-start your Pinterest following by announcing and sharing your new social account with your followers on other social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, and via email.

7. Get your employees involved. There’s a good chance your employees are already on Pinterest. Ask them to contribute to your pinboards and ask their feedback on how to make your brand account one worth following. By getting them involved they’ll help repin and share your content with their followers, as well as surface great content for you to repin and share.

8. Curating Interesting Pinboards. Unlike Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, Pinterest lacks ‘brand’ pages. Brands use standard accounts and therefore are represented as a brand only by their user name, logo and the boards they curate. Users who find a brand via a pinned item will often review the brand’s boards for interesting collections before making a determination to follow the brand. Pinboards should be sorted by category, theme or interest and contain a mix of brand products and curated products.

9. Avoiding Excessive Self-Promotion. Brands must share their own content in order to reap the traffic benefits of Pinterest. There are no hard and fast rules around the optimum mix of brand content vs. repinned content; but the general rule of thumb is to find some balance in what is shared.

10. Finding and Following Users. In order to build a following users must be aware of the brand presence on Pinterest. The easiest way to do this is to repin, like or comment on other user’s items. Repins, likes and follows generate email notifications to users, alerting them to your activity. This builds goodwill and also creates awareness of your brand account on Pinterest